The reading today gives us some comic relief.

You just have to chuckle at the letters going back and forth between the leaders of Trans-Euphrates and the two kings, first Artaxerxes and then later Darius.

Artaxerxes agreed and gave in to the leaders of Trans-Euphrates and stopped the building of the temple. Then, the temple construction was started again a few years later when the people listened to the prophets Haggai and Zechariah.

When the leaders of Trans-Euphrates “tattled” on them, Darius took a quite different approach than his predecessor. He not only approved the building of the temple, he told the leaders of Trans-Euphrates to pay for the expenses from their treasury! And, they were to provide the animals for the daily sacrifices at the temple. They were to do this without fail or else…well you can read for yourself what would happen to anyone who changed the king’s edict. No surprise that the leaders carried out the edict with diligence!